Saturday, May 16, 2015

Review - - Let Me Love You Again

Let Me Love You Again

By Anna DeStefano

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: April 28, 2015

Selena Rosenthal and Oliver Bowman were high school
sweethearts, but when Oliver began to reform his wild ways and to encourage
Selena to do the same, she saw it as Oliver’s abandoning her as her father did.
She broke up with Oliver, and after a night of heavy drinking, she slept with
Brad Douglas, Oliver’s best friend. Oliver’s rampage when he discovered the
double betrayal forced him to leave Chandlerville, Georgia, and Brad’s
grandmother’s tough love had the same result. Selena also left town. Seven
years later, they are all returning. Brad returned first when his grandmother’s
illness brought him home. He is now engaged to Dru Hampton, one of Oliver’s foster
sisters (Here in My Heart, a 2014
novella).

Even when she realized she was pregnant, Selena refused to
come home. Her pregnancy did push her into choosing sobriety, and she struggled
to support her daughter until a wealthy New York businessman proposed,
promising her the life she wanted for herself and pledging to become a father
to her daughter Camille. But Parker proved to be a tarnished knight, a
chronically unfaithful husband, and an indifferent stepfather. Now in the
process of a combative divorce, Selena has returned to Chandlerville because
she needs the financial and emotional support her mother offers. But she plans
for the stay to be a short one, and she does her best to avoid her mother’s
next-door neighbors, the Dixons, and to keep Camille away from them.

Oliver, one of Marsha and Joe Dixon’s beloved foster kids,
has not been back to Chandlerville since he left, a rebellious kid who left a
trail of chaos and heartbreak behind him and carried a heavy load of both with
him. Against all odds, Oliver embraced sobriety, straightened out his life,
honed his gifts, and found success as a top IT troubleshooter. The money he
sends home provides extras for other kids who have found a home with the
Dixons, but Oliver has stayed away, even for the past eighteen months when he
has been working in Atlanta, only a short distance from his foster family. One
day Oliver gets a phone call from Travis Bryant, one of his foster siblings
with whom Oliver has maintained contact, with the news that Joe Dixon has had a
heart attack. Oliver returns to Chandlerville, not without reservations but
with a steady determination to be there when the Dixons need him.

Selena and Oliver are immediately aware that their feelings
for one another are as powerful as ever, but they are both eager to maintain
their distance and to leave Chandlerville as soon as possible. Both goals prove
elusive for them. Selena can’t leave until her divorce is settled and her
husband, who likes the convenience of marriage, is using every weapon at his
disposal to postpone the divorce and force Selena to remain his wife. Oliver
has promised his foster mother that he will stay and help with his younger
foster siblings, including a provisionally placed toddler, while she focuses on
Joe. Events and family conspire to throw the former lovers together, but Selena
fights to protect her daughter and to postpone the question for which she has
no answer.

Let
Me Love You Again is the second installment in DeStefano’s aptly named
Echoes of the Heart. On one level, it is a secret baby story with a twist.
While the secret baby is one of romance fiction’s most common tropes, it is far
rarer to have a secret baby whose paternity is uncertain. In this case, with
Dru pregnant and her marriage to Brad about to take place, the identity of
Camille’s father has far reaching ramifications. But this story is much more
than just another secret baby book. It is a story about families—their make-up,
their dynamics, and the ties that refuse to be severed. It is also a story of second
chances. Oliver and Selena are imperfect people with complicated histories who
made unwise choices in the past and who don’t always act wisely even after life
has seasoned and matured them. They still have lessons to learn, and the
learning is sometimes painful. I particularly liked the fact that the author
shows them as recovering alcoholics for whom the struggle to stay sober is an
on-going battle, especially in stressful times.

Readers familiar with DeStefano’s
category novels will find the same emotional punch in her single-tile novels.
Readers who found a favorite fictional setting in the Mimosa Lane trilogy will
enjoy returning to Chandlerville and catching glimpses of familiar characters.
If you like small-town romance with flawed but likeable protagonist, rich
family contexts, and well-earned HEAs, I definitely recommend Let Me Love You Again.

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